Sleeping Beauties

So, I have really been enjoying Avery's 2 year old stage. When Tate was 2, I was a little bit concerned that my child may be a maniac. Now with Avery I am a bit more relaxed as I recognize that all 2 year olds are maniacs, and it has no bearing on their long-term state-of-mind.

However, this has been a rough couple of days. If Avery isn't picking on her brother (note the scratches on Tate's forehead inflicted by said maniac today), she's climbing on me and trying to give me a pounding. I decided that this girl just needs someone to wrestle with her for several hours a day! Then, I remembered that I said the same thing when Tate was younger, and Eric did return many a night from work to wrestle Tate for a good while. So, I have been reminded again that she's normal (at least for our children =) and once again I shall request that Eric come home ready to rumble!

Also, Avery refuses to sleep in a bed lately. She's been sleeping on the floor for weeks.

p.s. I'm aware that I could wrestle with her, and I do, but I have never enjoyed wrestling and dad's better at it anyway=)

p.p.s. Apparently Tate was listening in Primary Sunday when they talked about choices. This morning Avery and Tate came in my bed and she was kicking him. He yelled, "That's fighting Avery! It's called a bad choice!!"

A Girl After My Own Heart

We went on a sweets run last Friday night. I always want donuts and Eric always wants ice-cream. This little chica-lica opted for both. I love her joy =) She loves her some sweets and I totally understand!

Yesterday when Tate hopped out of the bath tub, I wasn't ready to assist him with his towel yet. In distress, he plead, "But I am going to turn into a germ!" Huh?

Then, after I helped him with the towel and as he was getting dressed he said, "Oh, thank you! Now I'm not going to be a germ."

Later I told Eric about his odd statements, and I think Eric may have figured it out: Tate has a cold, and we've discussed germs. (You know, how he should stop using his entire palm to wipe the snot all over his face!) When he got out of the tub and was cold, he was relating it to the previously mentioned germs. Funny kid.

Also recently, we were watching the TLC show, "Income Property". At one point, they were using hammers to demolish some walls. Tate says, "I got an idea! We use hammers and knock our house down." Then, in the same breath, "No! I like our house" with a smile. Either he's making more jokes, or just really had a swell idea, until he thought it through =)

And finally, Tate is reaching a point where he's letting me know that "he's not silly!". I often laugh at him and the sometimes quirky things that come out of his mouth, but yesterday he got mad when I laughed. I understand, but c'mon, he's funny!

**Explicit Warning**

Last week Avery was napping and when I checked on her, I had to search the room. Here she was, just waking up, having slept under the crib.

Tate says funny things. Last night he was reading books with me on my bed. He jumped up to leave the room and stopped in the doorway to whisper back to me, "In two months, we go to the beach. In three months....it's Saturday!"

This morning he was discussing the position of the white underwear he was about to put on. "Straight lines here mean the front. This is where my butt goes. And this is where my wiener goes. And here is where my feet go." He proceeds to put them on and says, "This looks like a bump, but it's my wiener."

Pinterest and Pudding

Ma bought Aves some dresses for next winter, but I've been rolling up the sleeves and testing them out because they're so fun. She looks a little hillbilly in this first picture =)

Believe it or not, I've heard people complain about Pinterest being a waste of time. Oh, party poopers, look here I say!! This took 5 seconds to figure out from the Pinterest picture and look how cute Avery's little Pinterest hair turned out!
Avery joins our preschool co-op when it's in our home. Writing in pudding today was her favorite. Mom pointed out that in the majority of the pictures of my children, they have some sort of food smothered on their angel faces. No reason to stop now that that has come to my attention!


When asked who hit this kid at the gym nursery this afternoon, Avery covered her face with her hands. Classic guilty move, dear.

...there's more...

Heard from the bathroom this morning:

Tate: "Oh no! The wipie's gone." (referring to toilet paper)

and

"Avery, your zipper's down."

Upon hearing these words, I think of XYZPDQ! You know from elementary years: eXamine Your Zipper Pretty Darn Quick =) It made me laugh because it was just the zipper up by her neck on her footie pajamas was zipped down about half an inch.

smarty pants

Tate spends a lot of time with his letter fridge magnets.

Today he said, "I spelled your name mom!"

Me: "Did you spell 'Shelly'? or 'mom'?"

Tate: "I spelled 'mom'."

I noticed some funky spelling so I let him know it is as simple as m-o-m.

To which he replied, "No, it's spelled 'XNPJEV'."

I don't think I'll be homeschooling my children =) I love spending time with them dearly, but they might respond better to somebody other than me. This conversation reminded me of a friend's facebook post that went something like this:

I must be the best teacher in the world because my kids know everything!

I must also note, that even when Tate occasionally insists he's right, sometimes when I correct him, he does say, "Oh" and accepts it, which is very nice.

Dance Party!

Kelsey and Erica were married last week in Southern California. Teresa and her family got to spend the holidays at Disneyland and enjoyed the fabulous temperatures of that region. Tonight was the wedding reception in Pendleton and they hired Mark Gilbert's band, who were awesome. I wish we had done a dance at our reception. I also wish we had the opportunity to dance more often. I spoke with the very sweet Renee Bishop, who said that when her husband and her were young, they used to dance every weekend. I was so excited when Eric asked me to dance tonight. Fun stuff.

I thought Tate might be shy about dancing, but he and the other munchkins had a good time and entertained us adults =) Mom took these cute pictures. It might appear that they're dancing solo, but I promise there were other free-spirited children twirling and falling and thoroughly enjoying themselves, too!